Transforming waste expanded polystyrene foam into hyper-crosslinked polymers for carbon dioxide capture and separation

• Published in: Chemical engineering journal (Lausanne, Switzerland : 1996) Switzerland : 1996), 2017-09, Vol.323, p.557-564
• Main Authors: Fu, Zhenyu, Jia, Jizhen, Li, Jing, Liu, Changkun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adsorption; Carbon dioxide; Friedel-Crafts reaction; Hyper-crosslinked polymer; Waste expanded polystyrene foam
• ISSN: 1385-8947; 1873-3212
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2017.04.090

[Display omitted] •A facile strategy to synthesize HCPs using WEPS as raw material was proposed.•DCE was used as solvent and crosslinking agent in synthesis of the HCPs.•The HCPs exhibited large specific surface area and good thermal stability.•The HCPs possessed high CO2 adsorption capacity and selectivity over N2. A novel facile and one-pot approach was developed for the preparation of hyper-crosslinked polymers (HCPs) via the Friedel-Crafts reaction between the waste expanded polystyrene foam (WEPS) and 1,2-dichloroethane in this study. 1,2-dichloroethane as a cost-effective chemical agent was used as both the solvent and the cross-linker for HCPs. The obtained HCPs showed large specific surface areas and good thermal stability. The highest CO2 adsorption capacity (1.987mmol/g) and the adsorption selectivity ratio (CO2 over N2) of 23.4 at 273K and 1.13bar were achieved among the prepared HCPs. This study provides a simple and cost-effective method to convert WEPS into value-added adsorbents for the capture and storage of carbon dioxide as the greenhouse gas.